Windows API Tutorial

The tutorials start with the most basic Windows program, the Windows equivalent of "Hello World!", Winnie. Then we move on to a more Generic program, which serves as a skeleton for a simple Windows application. Then we discuss various Controls. Using these controls one can build a complete dialog-based application, whose main window is a dialog. We are then ready to discuss a Generic Dialog, a framework with which one can quickly build specific dialogs.

More advanced topics include detecting GDI leaks, programming with Threads with a practical example of a Folder Watcher--a program that watches directories for changes.

Modern Windows programming requires some knowledge of the Shell API, which leads us to the discussion of OLE and COM. We show how one can encapsulate OLE in C++ to create Smart OLE. OLE is also used in Automation, which lets your application talk to other applications.

Controls are nothing but specialized windows. You can easily create your own controls, as evidenced by the Splitter Bar tutorial.

For graphics programmer, we give a short introduction on using Bitmaps for animation and a more advanced tutorial on using Direct Draw.

Presentations

From time to time Bartosz gives C++ presentations. This one, about Active Objects was given at the Northwest C++ Users Group. It describes an Object-Oriented approach to threads in C++.